Ornamenting leather.



10.735,836. PATBNTED AUG. 11, 1903i..A-

s. SLADE- & R. GOLDSTBIN.

ORNAMENTING LEATHER.

APPLIGATION FILED Nov. 21, 1902. No MODEL.

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No. ceases.

Ummm) STATES rammed August 11, 190e.

PATENT OFFICE'.

ORNAMENTING LEATHER.

SPECIFICATION' forming part of Letters Patent No. 735,836, dated August 11,1903.

Application filed November 21! 1902. Serial No. 132,208. (No specimens.)-

To @ZZ whom t may concern,.-

Be it known that we, SAMUEL SLADE and ROBERT GOLDSTEIN, citizens of the United States, residing at Chicago, in the county ofv Cook and State of Illinois, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in the Art of Ornamenting Leather and other Like Materials, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact specification.

This invention relates to the ornamentation of leather, canvas, and other like material;

and it has for its primary object to produce on such material alto-rilievo or embossed effects or the counterpartorint-aglio of the same in a manner whereby the more important features or parts of the design or molding mayy plish this result in reality, because of the difiiculty of molding the leather in such sharp relief without producing shrinkage and distortion of the design, and therefore the idea suggested itself of molding the principal or more important features in papier-mache and securing the leather around the edges thereof only; but the seams or laps of the papiermch disfigure the surface of the design and for this reason are objectionable, although the papier-mache combines advantageously with leather and other like pliable material, because of its resilient or flexible character enabling it to bend with the leather Without rupturing.`

In carrying out our invention, therefore, We compose the more important orprominent features of the design or figure of a plastic dough-like substance, which may be readily molded or otherwise formed into shape and which will harden upon drying, and with this plastic material we incorporate the leather as a background for the design or figure, preferably by the method which will now be described, with reference to the accompanying drawings, and more particularly pointed out in the claims.

In the said drawings, Figure 1 is a cross or profile section of a mold and a face in altorilievo with the leather background and papier-mache backing molded therein in accordance with our invention; and Fig. 2 is a back View thereof, showing the leather in place, but the mold empty with the exception of one corner thereof, in which is applied the plastic material and one of the subsequent layers ofthe backing.

'lhe design to be produced, as if upon the surface of the leather or other pliable material which is to serve as the background of the design, is first produced in any suitable mold 1, which may be .composed of plaster,`

clay, metal, or any other suitable material and constructed and prepared according to approved methods in this art. The design or alto-rilievo represented in this example is a face the profile of which appears in Fig. l, while-the back or concavity thereof appears in Fig; 2. After the mold has been prepared in any suitable Way to prevent the material fromsticking thereto the important features of the mold are filled with a paste or dough 2 or any other suitable plastic material capable of being pressed into the mold and of retaining a smooth desirable surface upon drying; but for this purpose we preferably employ a dough composed of flour paste, Whiting, andwood fiber, which are mixed together to a consistency of bread-dough and kneaded and rolled until the various ingredients are thoroughly commingled and produce a homogeneous mass, which becomes smooth upon drying, like plaster-of-paris and other similar materials, and at the same time possesses the requisite degree of tenacity or exbility to enable it to yield more or less and prevent it from rupture. Before the dough 2 is placed in the mold, however, the piece of leather 3 or other pliable material which is to constitute the background for the design is laid in the mold after the center thereof has been cut out on the line 3 around the prominent features of the design, and a part of the dough is carried outwardly over the edges of the leather, as shown at 2, thus forming a fiush joint between the surface of the leather and the surface of the dough 2, which is very ICO diicult to detect after the cast is painted, some of the painting being carried across the joint onto the leather, which latter also contains or receives some of the minor features of the design or molding. After the dough has been thus lapped over the edges of the leather 3 a sheet or layer of some suitable flexible material, preferably asbestos paper 4, is secured to the back of the leather, so as to partially overlap the outer edges of the dough 2, the paper having been previously prepared bysoakingin paste or size or othersnitable material, causing it to adhere to the leather and the dough. This being done, the back of the cast may be reinforced or backed up by any desired number of layers of papier-mch 5, which are gradually tapered oi' where they overlap the leather 3 so that the dough cast 2 will be surrounded by a reinforce Whose rigidity gradually decreases toward the leather until it becomes practically as flexible as the leather itself, and hence protects the edges of the dough cast 2 from being fractured, While at the same time avoids the formation of a rigid union between the leather and the design or molding.

Having thus described our invention, what we claim as new therein, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

l. The herein-described article of manufacture consisting of a sheet of pliable material having an aperture formed therein and a casting of plastic material protruding through said aperture and incorporated with said sheet, substantially as set forth.

2. The herein-described article ofmanut'acture consisting of a sheet of pliable material having an aperture therein and a casting of plastic material in which the edges of said pliable material are embedded, substantially as set forth.

3. The herein-described article of man ufacture consisting of a sheet of pliable material having an aperture therein, a casting of plastic material protruding through said aperture and partially overlapping the back of said pliable material, and a backing overlapping and secured to both said plastic material and pliable sheet, substantially as set forth.

4. The herein-described article of manufacture consisting of a sheet of material having an aperture therein, a cast composed of a plastic material projecting through said aperture and overlapping the back of said pliable sheet and a flexible backing overlapping said plastic material and sheet and gradually decreasing in thickness outwardly from said cast, substantially as set forth.

5. The herein-described article of manufacture consisting of a sheet having an aperture therein, a cast composed of flour, Whiting and. ber projecting through said aperture and partially overlapping the back of said sheet and a backing overlapping said cast and sheet and secured thereto,substantially as set forth.

6. The herein-described process of molding a design on a iexible sheet which consists in forming the prominent features of a design 'of a plastic material; partially overlapping a surrounding sheet of the flexible material, and finally securing a backing to the plastic material and flexible material so as to overlap their point of union,substantiallyas set forth.

SAM. SLADE. ROBERT GOLDSTEIN. Witnesses:

F. A. HOPKINS, M. B. ALLSTADT. 

